County rescuers helped during hurricane

BEAVER FALLS -- Six members of Beaver County's water rescue team spent the weekend near Philadelphia helping victims caught in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.

Four Beaver Falls firefighters and two New Brighton firefighters, all part of the rescue team stationed in Beaver Falls, were told Friday that they were being deployed as part of the Southwest Pennsylvania Region 13 Task Force under the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

The team -- consisting of Beaver Falls Capt. Chris Chirichetti and firefighters Robert Butler, Chris Ceriani and Scott Evans as well as New Brighton Assistant Chief Gary Knight Jr. and firefighter Jeff Fuller -- traveled with the task force to Harrisburg early Saturday, then were dispatched to Montgomery County where they arrived Saturday evening, Knight said.

Initially, the plan called for teams to do six-hour rotations, but that was scrapped after heavy rains hit the area from Hurricane Irene and flash floods started slamming the county.

"The six-hour rotations kind of went out the window," Knight said.

Chirichetti said it started raining heavily at about 11 p.m. Saturday and then at about 1 a.m. Sunday "all heck broke loose."

Around 2 a.m. Sunday, the team responded to a housing complex surrounded by waters high enough to cover a nearby car, Chirichetti said.

"The water came up pretty fast there," said Chirichetti, who added that the ground was already saturated by recent rains. Chirichetti, however, said the water receded just in the time it took the team to evacuate about 10 residents.

Firefighters told the hesitant residents that they only had one chance to leave, Knight said. "We told them, 'We can't come back,'" he said. "So when they heard that they were like, 'Oh, we've got to go.'"

Chirichetti said the team was also called to help some local firefighters whose boat had capsized, but it was delayed because it had to take a circuitous route to avoid closed roads.

"The worst part of the whole (trip) was not being familiar with the area," Knight said.

By the time the team got to the site, Chirichetti said rescuers had parked a military vehicle upstream to lessen the water flow, which allowed the firefighters, who were clinging to branches, to pull themselves to safety.

Otherwise, Chirichetti said the team worked through the night helping people caught in their homes by rising waters or who got their vehicles stuck in high water. "It was truly an amazing experience," he said.

Beaver County emergency services director Wes Hill, who is also the chairman of the Region 13 task force, said 120 responders on swift-water rescue and urban search and technical rescue teams were deployed for the hurricane.